Friday, November 7, 2014

Remember Kaypro?

Esquire.  How We Lived 1933-1983.  June 1983.
Founded in 1952 by Andrew Kay, the inventor of the digital voltmeter.  The company and its products were huge in the 1980's, but were bankrupt by 1992.  There's a lesson here.

At the time of its release in 1982, the Kaypro II buried its competition, the Osborne I (remember that?)  With a huge 9" monitor and single sided floppy drives, a bargain at $1795 including software!  A real "down-to-earth price."

1 comment:

Word Star said...

No real lessons...Kaypro made the successful transition to PC Compatible machines, introducing an AT (286) machine slightly before IBM managed to crank one out.

Kaypro failed for the same reason a lot of the brand-name makers failed - the market was suddenly flooded with cheaper DIY machines and beige boxes stuffed with commodity parts, even the bigger makers like Packard Bell suffered as they cut corners (and quality) until they died from a thousand cuts.